Childcare Is So Expensive, Only the Wealthy Can Afford It

December 16, 2015

Should only wealthy people be able to have
kids in America? According to a new report, childcare center
fees for two children is higher than median rent payments in every single state
in the United States. Another recent report shows that childcare
costs more than in-state college tuition in most states. After I pointed this
out in an op-ed, and proposed a solution to make child
care more affordable for working families, readers took to the comments section,
the vast majority of which tracked the following sentiment, as expressed by one
commenter: “If you cannot afford to take
care of your own kid(s), don’t have any or give them up for adoption.” I found the
comments distressing, because the sentiments expressed by the commenters
naturally lead to the conclusion that only the rich should have children.

As a country, we have a love-hate relationship
with people scrambling to get by. On the one hand, there is anger and
resentment at the mere suggestion that America should look out for those who
are struggling; on the other, people love a rags-to riches-story—it’s the American
dream. And people who make it are iconic figures in our national story, from
Henry Ford to Oprah to Jay Z. The catch: We only like these stories after the
fact.

While it’s true that these folks did a lot to
help themselves, in most instances there was also some government support along
the way—whether that’s public housing, public education, or another subsidized
program. When the view that government shouldn’t have a role in helping
families collides with the extreme economic inequality in this country, the
impact raises profound questions about our social contract and what kind of
country we should be. For all of the talk about family values, do we actually
value families irrespective of whether they are rich, poor, or somewhere in
between?

From the looks of it, from online comments to
the halls of Congress, we don’t. It took 20 years to finally pass the bill to
reauthorize the major childcare program we have for low-income families—the
Child Care and Development Block Grant. When it finally passed, it mandated
higher child care standards without the financial resources needed to help
states to pay for them, and did very little to make sure that the five in six
low-income children who are eligible but don’t receive help from the program
actually get support. The fact is that we have hardly any policies in the U.S.
that actually support families—whether that’s affordable child care, paid
family leave, or policies that help us take care of our aging parents—unlike
many other industrialized countries ranging from Austria to Sweden. The U.S., for example,
is one of only two countries in the world not offering paid
maternity leave to working women.

We take a lot of national pride in being a
country that creates economic opportunity and allows upward mobility. But as it
becomes harder and harder for people to fulfill basic needs, like child care,
we need to decide what kind of country we want to be. Several years ago Bill
Clinton gave a talk in which he said, “The whole 21st century is a
contest between the clenched fist and the open hand.” A clenched fist is selfish,
every person for herself, and an open hand acknowledges that we’re all in this
together and we all benefit from public resources that help families make it
work. Looking at our current state of affairs, in which it’s common for
hardworking families to work multiple jobs and still barely be able to pay the
bills or take a sick day, I’d argue that the clenched first approach isn’t
working.

Having children isn’t like buying a whirlpool
bathtub or a fancy car, and it certainly should not be reserved for the
wealthy. Childcare and other supports for working families are an investment in
our future and the country we want to be. Let’s do more than pay lip service to
the American dream—let’s help people start living it.

Vivien Labaton is the co-founder and co-director of Make It Work, a campaign to advance economic security for working women, men and families.